The Legend of Zelda: Alien Assault
by RickGiriamax
Summary: AU Crossover story of The Legend of Zelda and Alien vs Predator. After a terraforming mission of the Weyland-Yutani Corp. goes terribly wrong it will be up to Link, a Colonial Marine of the WY Corp., to find an answer to the mystery behind the failure.
1. AUTHOR'S NOTE

**Author's Note**

Before we officially begin with the story, this is a crossover fan fiction of The Legend of Zelda and AVP. All characters are human, however race they were in The Legend of Zelda, but they keep some of the looks from their original characters.

* * *

 **DISCLAIMER** : All The Legend of Zelda related content present in this story is copyrighted and/or registered trademarks of Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto.

All Aliens vs Predator related content present in this copyrighted and/or registered trademarks of 20th Century Fox.


	2. INFECTION

**_OCTOBER 25th, 2231 1930 hrs_**

 ** _LV-271, "Nayru's Love" WY Corp. Station_**

Weather conditions in LV-271 had been inclement during the past few days. It had been nearly seven weeks since winter had officially started, and temperatures had fallen below 14ºF. Thick layers of snow had now covered nearly the entire southern hemisphere and the colonists and miners of the Weyland Yutani station, Nayru's Love, had been forced to lock themselves up inside the bunkers several feet underground. Two security guards came back to the vigilance station atop the tallest tower (commonly known as the "crow's nest"). They set their coffees down on their desks and looked out the five inches thick window into the dark landscape outside.

"This is ridiculous," said one of them, a plump middle-aged man by the name of Talon. "Why is it that we have to freeze our asses out up here where the heating system barely reaches?"

"You know the boss," replied the other man, Ingo, a skinny man about the same age as Talon, "he's so paranoid about little green men that he can't help having someone on the lookout." He took a sip of coffee and reassumed his speech, "we've been here for what, two years already? We haven't seen any life out there but our own people returning from the mines."

"Well, whatever, let's check the cameras and pretend we're doing something important," replied Talon, helping himself some coffee and looking at the screens.

Nayru's Love was located about 50º below the equator of LV-271, which was in fact a small planetoid in the Gama Sigma System, about 30 light years from Hyrule. It had been one of the first colonies set by the WY Corp. since its foundation over two hundred years ago and its primary mission was terraforming and mining the planet for resources. It was originally founded by about 200 colonists, including a party of 20 heavily armed and well trained marines, and the leadership of the colony had been commended to none other than Mr. Daphnes Nohansen Weyland's own daughter, Zelda Weyland.

Nowadays, Neyru's Love was populated by over 531 colonists (for new colonists had arrived shortly after the activation of the APP, or Atmosphere Processing Plant, nearly one year ago) and was prospering and thriving thanks to the mining operations. Its primary resources were the extraction of minerals such as iron, gold, and copper, though it also relied on the processing of plutonium and uranium for the powering of the APP and generating the amount of power needed to keep the colony running.

Talon and Ingo were looking at the screens where they were able to monitor the cameras all around the compound, which covered a surface so expanse that, even though the crow's nest was set right in the middle of the colony, its borders were barely visible from there even during the day and with perfect weather conditions. They saw a group of seven miners gathered near the entrance to one of the mining shafts and talking rapidly to each other; apparently one of them was trying to lock the door but the others wouldn't allow it.

"What's going on there?" asked Ingo, pointing at the screen.

"Who knows?" replied Talon, not really paying attention.

"Should I turn on the audio?" asked Ingo and, without waiting for a response, he switched it on.

 _"_ _No fucking way I'm waiting any longer!"_ yelled the man trying to close the door.

 _"_ _We have to send down a patrol to look for Aaron!"_ yelled one of the other miners. _"He could be injured for all we know!"_

 _"_ _Suits him well for trying to explore beyond the limits!"_ yelled the first man.

 _"_ _Garo, you son of a bitch!"_ yelled another man. _"Don't be such a heartless, selfish bastard! Aaron has a damn kid who will be worrying about her father if he doesn't come to read her bedtime story tonight!"_

 _"_ _I SAID FUCKING NO, PIERCE!"_ yelled Garo. _"WE WILL FIND THE MAN TOMO-"_ he was silenced by a heavy blow on the nose by Pierce, who then lunged at him and started punching him in the head while the rest of the miners went back into the mineshaft.

"Ok, time to call for help," said Talon, coming to his senses and pressing a button next to a speaker to his left. "Ground post one, this is the crow's nest; we have a situation at the entrance of mineshaft 61, over."

 _"_ _Roger that, crow's nest; we're sending a squad right away,"_ replied another voice on the other end of the speaker.

Talon and Ingo looked at each other and then back at the screen, where they could now see a heavily injured Garo reaching out for a panel on the wall and pressing a small button; the door of the mineshaft shut closed and he passed out collapsing on the floor.

* * *

Pierce held up his flashlight as his fellow miners followed him with their own flashlights on pointing around. One of the miners was holding a pickaxe and another had a prying bar on his hand.

"AARON!" shouted one of the miners, Rusl, who had been arguing with Garo by the door before. "AARON, WHERE ARE YOU?!" his voice echoed all around the tunnel.

"We should try one of those scanner things," said Pierce, "Connor, give me your Motion Tracker."

One of the miners came forward and handed the device to Pierce, who immediately turned it on and pointed it forward into the depths of the tunnel. The pulsating waves on the screen didn't show anything special.

"Ok, let's split up into two groups," said Rusl. "Pierce, take Connor and Felix and one MT. I'll go with Gorman and Fado with the other MT." They gathered in teams and went split ways, turning on their other MT and their radios to stay in touch.

They walked for several minutes into the shaft, calling Aaron's name out loud from time to time, and looking around for possible signs of what may had happened to him. They were about to call it off when something caught Felix's attention.

"Hey, Pierce, over here!" he yelled.

"What is it?" asked Pierce, running back to Felix. "Look at this opening over here, it wasn't made by us and you can barely fit an adult through here."

Pierce leaned next to Felix and examined the opening. It led into a tunnel barely a meter wide and with very rough contours. "How old is this path?" he asked.

"We started digging this mineshaft about two or three weeks ago, so this section must have been dug very recently," replied Connor.

Pierce leaned closer to the tunnel and saw something shiny at arm's reach inside; he reached for it and picked it up. Standing up again, he examined the object with his flashlight: it was Aaron's dog-tag, splattered in blood. He gave the other two men a grim look and then pressed a button on his radio. "Come in, Rusl, I think we found a clue as to where Aaron could have gone."

 _"_ _Good news?"_ asked Rusl's voice on the other end.

"Er, not really," said Pierce. "We are going to investigate furt-" he stopped talking abruptly when they heard a rustling sound inside of the tunnel. "Hold on a second," he said to Rusl and he leaned down to look into the tunnel. "Aaron?" he asked, pointing his light inside the tunnel. Pierce's sight and mind went blank as something jumped into his face and wrapped itself around his neck, cutting off his air. Before he passed out, he heard the screams and then the muffled gagging sounds of Connor and Felix, as they too fell by his side.

* * *

Pierce woke up with a sore throat. He felt his limbs stiff and his body felt numb. He opened his eyes and looked around, trying to accustom his eyes to the dim light. He tried to move but then he realized that he was stuck to the wall by a hard, sticky substance and that he wasn't able to pry it off. When the blurriness faded and his eyes worked properly again, he screamed in horror in sight of the scene in front of him: he was in a low-ceilinged cavern with strange rigged patterns along the walls; Connor and Felix were unconscious a few feet away to his left, stuck to the wall with the same substance than him, a strange skin-colored, spider-like creature stuck to Felix's face with its tail wrapped around his neck.

All around the room, Pierce saw big eggs, for that's all he could think them to be, large dark brown eggs with petal-like appendixes on top. Some of the eggs were already open and empty, yet others were closed with their petals wriggling. Pierce heard someone gasp and pant on his right and he looked in that direction just to see Aaron, his eyes wide open in horror and panting heavily while he coughed.

"AARON!" yelled Pierce. "Aaron, are you ok?"

"Help… me!" gasped Aaron, as he coughed again, spitting some blood in the process.

"Aaron, Rusl will find us," yelled Pierce. "You'll be fine!"

Aaron shook his head in negation and started to shiver, soon turning into a strong convulsion. Pierced shouted trying to call Aaron's attention and then he screamed in horror as Aaron's eyes went blank and his chest burst from the inside out, a screeching serpent-like creature breaking out of Aaron's chest, wriggling out of it and falling into the floor before slithering out of sight. Pierce screamed and cried Aaron's name, knowing it was useless for his fellow miner was now dead. He then felt a strong pain on his own chest, as if his heart was about to explode. He shook his head screaming in pain and heard Connor's screams of horror, for he had awoken and was looking straight at him. Pain seared through his own body as the monster inside his chest burst out of his ribcage and everything faded… forever.

* * *

 **A/N: Prologue finished... I will work on this story as I'm already finishing with my The Legend of Zelda: The Age of Darkness fan fiction. Please let me know what do you think about this!**


	3. COMPUTER LOG

**_From the USS Computer Log Registry_**

* * *

USS Hylia Navigational Computer AI System Startup Sequence commencing_

X

Log entry 653632_

X

Life support system operating at 100%

X

Re-establishing artificial atmosphere_

X

Reengaging temperature control_

X

Calculating current position from target: x-258.5 / y-263.24 / z-159.54_

X

Distance from destination: 321.120 km_

X

Engaging orbit_

X

Accessing crew manifest and current status_

X

Name: Darunia Goro, Captain / Age: 39 / Record: Active Captain of the USS Hylia, WY Corp. Colonial Marines. Formerly known for his long career as one of the strongest soldiers of the WY Corp. / Status: In stasis_

Name: MidoWoods, 1st Lieutenant / Age: 27 / Record: Second in command to the USS Hylia, WY Corp. Colonial Marines. Formerly assigned to Nayru's Love first colonial vessel, yet removed from list due to health complications. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Saria Woods, Staff Sergeant / Age: 25 / Record: Chief medic and third in command to the USS Hylia, WY Corp. Colonial Marines. Formerly assigned to Nayru's Love first colonial vessel, yet removed from list due to a personal request. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Darmani Goro, Sergeant / Age: 26 / Record: Expert with heavy artillery and demolitions. Assigned to the mission on request of Cpt. Darunia Goro. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Jaggle Faron, Sergeant / Age: 30 / Record: Expert xenobiologist, knowledgeable in several types of plants and life forms discovered in the various colonies settled by the WY Corp. / Status: [WARNING – CRYOGENIC FAILURE – NO LIFE SIGNS DETECTED]_

Name: Link Smith, Corporal / Age: 21 / Record: One of the most skilled and sharp soldiers in the WY Corp. Colonial Marines. Renown by his early commendations during his first years of service, descendant to the war hero by the same name who managed to defeat the tyrant Ganon. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Shad Castle, Lance Corporal / Age: 23 / Record: Skilled cryptographer and programming specialist. Recruited for the mission due to his knowledge with computer handling and hacking into several types of security systems. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Mikau Zora, Private 1st Clas / Age: 22 / Record: Specialized in hand to hand combat and martial arts. Expert in handling several types of knives and swords, chosen by the committee due to his expertise in stealth and infiltration. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Malon Lon, Private 1st Class / Age: 19 / Record: No military background available. Last minute assigned to the mission by an unknown authority. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Kafei Dotour, Private / Age: 21 / Record: No military background available. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Aryll Smith, Private / Age: 18 / Record: No military background available. Descendant to the war hero Link, who managed to defeat the tyrant Ganon. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Colin Ordona, Private / Age: 18 / Record: No military background available. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Ichiro Carpenter, Private / Age: 22 / Record: No military background available. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Jiro Carpenter, Private / Age: 22 / Record: No military background available. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Pierre DuLac, Private / Age: 19 / Record: No military background available. / Status: In stasis_

Name: Classified, Agent Code Name "Fi" / [All information classified] / Status: In stasis_

X

Orbit engaged_

X

Deactivating stasis chamber_

X

Cryogenic tubes deactivated_

X

Reanimation process completed_

X

Mission status: commenced_

X

Awaiting for manual command by captain_

* * *

 **A/N: this chapter is intended to be just the computer log when the USS Hylia arrives at LV-271. This is my way of informing you about the names of the pain characters, without having to go through the dull process of having to inform it all when they are first mentioned :)**


	4. BRIEFING

**_January 20th, 2232 0720 hrs_**

 ** _USS Hylia, orbiting LV-271_**

The USS Hylia engaged orbit of LV-271 as the Navigation Computer, aka Navi, started up all of the systems on board and brought the crew out of stasis. One by one, the soldiers who had been on stasis for over two months started to regain consciousness and get out of their cryo-tubes. Link was the last one to rise, and he may had been asleep for another while, had it not been for the curses and racket that his fellow soldiers were making.

"He's fucking dead, man!" Link heard one of dead shouting.

"Easy bro," said another. "Don't get too close to it."

"Let me examine him," said one of the women. He recognized Saria's voice.

Link sat up and opened his eyes. The stasis chamber was already fully lit and his fellow soldiers were already up; he was wearing, as all of his male fellow soldiers were, only a white short and no shirt at all, while the women were only dressed with a pair of shorts and a tight white top. He stood up and noticed Malon, his best friend since childhood, and approached her. He then noticed she and the others were looking at SSgt. Saria Woods, the medical officer, who was leaning over one of the cryo-tubes and examining the soldier inside. Link walked up to them and tapped Malon's shoulder.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked.

"It's Faron," she replied. "Cryo-tube malfunctioned. He died in his sleep."

"Yep," agreed Saria, standing up. "He's dead. Maybe he's been like this for nearly the whole trip."

"Alright ladies, show is over!" shouted Captain Goro, "we'll be able to pay our respects later. I want everyone in the showers and then we're having breakfast at 0800! Briefing will be at 0900!" He looked at everyone for a second. "You waiting for me to get your slippers?! MOVE!"

Link followed the rest of the group to the showers and, after a quick rinse, they suited up with their casual WY black jumpers and went to the mess hall. He sat down next to Malon who was talking to Aryll, Link's younger sister. Aryll was telling her some apparently amusing story.

"... and then he said 'no fucking way, Aryll!"

"You're kidding! Hey Link!" greeted him Malon.

"Mal," replied Link, helping himself some eggs. "What were the two of you talking about?"

"Sure you wanna know, big brother?" replied Aryll with an evil grin.

"Er, not really," replied Link.

"Hey, Link!" called Mikau, before sitting by Link's other side. "You missed our practice session before we left Hyrule, what happened?"

"Too busy, sorry Mikau. Besides, my mother invited both Aryll and me to dinner the night before, so no chance of escape."

"Not a good cook your mom?" asked Mikau.

"Meh, it's better than this shit they're feeding us here," replied Link with a shrug and Mikau laughed.

"Morning ladies!" barked the captain. "I'm sure you all know me, but for those of you babies who don't I'll introduce myself. I'm Captain Darunia Goro, chief officer of this ship and head of this mession."

"Pardon me if I correct you, captain," said a female soft, yet authoritative voice from the door. Captain Goro frowned as he looked that way. Link and the other soldiers also looked as a medium, slim woman with wide eyes and the facial features of a doll walked between the tables and stood next to Captain Goro. "I'm sure you're aware that I'm the one in charge of the mission, though you will sure handle all of the military operation when we land." The soldiers looked at the captain, waiting for his reaction.

"Allow me to introduce you to Ms. Fi," explained the captain with contempt. "She's a representative of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and she's the one handling all of the intelligence and contact with Hyrule HQ."

"Thank you captain, and please, it's just Fi" she nodded at him and he sat down on a chair next to her. Fi pulled out a remote from her jumper and used it to dim the lights. A holographic screen appeared behind her. "By October 27th last year we received a transmission from our outpost in LV-271. The audio was very bad due to the weather conditions that the planet was going through by those days, but I think we can understand most of it." She pressed another button and a video appeared on screen. It was very foggy and full of static, and the audio was indeed broken up:

 _"... don't know ... they are. ... taking casualties ... " a loud screeching sound was heard, followed by gunfire. "We tried ... lockdown but ... useless. We ... immediate e-vac!"_

Everyone remained in silence and looked at Fi. She touched the hologram and a map appeared on screen.

"This is a map of the compound, Nayru's Love," she explained. "As we lost contact with the colony a few hours after receiving this message we are not aware of the nature of the threat, so we need to be extra careful. We did receive some intel, though, that may be useful for us." She touched a part of the map and it lit up. "This is the entrance to one of the mineshafts. One week before this video was recorded, a guard reported that some of the miners were having a fight at this point by the end of their shift and then some of them ventured into the shaft, but one stayed behind and locked the door, leaving the men inside; none of the six miners were seen ever again."

The soldiers looked at each other and Link caught Malon's eye. She merely raised her eyebrows and looked at Fi again.

"We don't know what happened to these men," said Fi, as she waved her hand and six pictures appeared on screen, "but the board believes that their disappearance has some connection to the events that ocurred afterwards."

"So we're playing detectives now?" asked Lt. Mido Woods, Capt. Goro's second in command. "That's not soldier work; why didn't you just send some investigators?"

"Because of the rest of our intel," said Fi, pressing another button on the controller. "What you're about to see is classified information."

Several pictures appeared on screen, all of them depicting corpses of people whose ribcages seemed to have been torn from the inside out. A large picture then appeared, showing a spider-like creature with a rigged tail stuck to a man's face on a stretcher, it's tail wrapped around the man's neck. Then another video appeared: two men were holding a dead spider-like creature and trying to perform an autopsy, but when the scalpel slit it's skin, a yellow gooey substance sprouted from it and soaked the man's hand, which started to emit a sizzling sound a fumes as the creature's blood quickly started to melt his hand. The man screamed in pain and the camera man turned off the video.

Fi pressed a button on her remote and the map reappeared. Everyone was staring at her perplexed. One of the younger ones raised a hand.

"Yes?" asked Fi.

"The name is Private Colin Ordon, Ma'am," said the boy. He had sad looking eyes and sandy hair. "Is there any chance that the colonists were just playing a prank? I mean, this shit looks pretty awesome for a movie."

"Hold your tongue and be more respectful, private!" barked Capt. Goro.

"It's ok, captain," acknowledged Fi. She then turned to look at Colin and nodded. "The board also thought the same thing when they received the messages, being that the reason why we took so long to respond; yet the loss of communication with the outpost and my incapability to find any trace of humor in these videos and pictures made us think that they are legit."

Link looked at Malon, who was looking down at her feet. He placed a hand on her shoulder while Fi kept talking about the intel and answering more questions.

"Hey, are you OK?" he asked.

"Yeah, sorry," she replied, forcing a smile and looking up again. "It's just that I can't help but think about the children here."

Link nodded, not really buying the lie but guessing it would be better not to push the subject any further and looked back at Fi.

"One other thing," she said. "While we search for survivors, we must pay special attention to this person," she swiped her hand and a picture of a beautiful young woman appeared on screen. She had long, blonde hair tied up in a braid, bright blue eyes and an expression of solemnity across her face. Every male soldier was now in full attention.

"Who's the babe?" said Ichiro, one of the twins.

"This is our primary target," explained Fi, "Miss Zelda Weyland. She is the daughter of Mr. Daphnes Weyland and the person in charge of the Nayru's Love colony."

"So we're a rescue mission after all?" asked Saria.

"We only have two main objectives on this mission," replied Fi, turning on the lights on and making the screen disappear, "being the first and priority the location and extraction of Miss Weyland; second one is to figure out what happened to the colonists and, if possible, bring back any proof of what may have happened."

"All right," said Capt. Goro, tired of being a sideshow. "You heard the lady, everyone gear up and get ready for descent in two hours!"

Link stood up and jogged along with his mates into the armory. It was a large circular room with a holographic projector in the middle of it; lockers and weapons racks were aligned all around the wall and benches were located surrounding the projector. Link saw Malon strapping on her gear and grabbing a pair of handguns and an assault rifle from the weapons rack. He opened his locker and took out his own gear. The uniform consisted of his WY black jumper, which he was already wearing, a leaf-green chest plate, matching helmet, leather-brown armbands and knee-length, highly articulated black boots. Link also strapped to his back a steel sword and went to the weapons rack to get an assault rifle when he was intercepted by Saria.

"Hey, Link!" she called, approaching him.

"Hey Saria," he replied with a smile.

Link and Saria had also been close friends ever since she had babysitted Aryll when she was a little girl. Being older than Link, she had often patronized him and treated him as a child until he joined the Marines and proved himself a very skilled soldier. She and Link had always had the sort of sibling-ish relationship and she cared about him as he did for her.

"Sorry I wasn't able to say hello when we woke up and I arrived at the briefing when it was nearing its end," she said while she strapped on her armor and put on her helmet. "The problem with Jaggle was a nasty one and I had to file a full report and send it back home."

"Yeah, it shocked all of us but we didn't really know the guy," replied Link.

"True… hey what's up with Malon?" she asked, looking at the redhead who was sitting by herself on a bench and looking absentmindedly at the soldiers.

"Let's go find out," said Link.

They approached Malon and sat next to her, but weren't able to say a thing for Capt. Goro and Fi entered the armory.

"Ok ladies, listen up!" barked Capt. Goro, calling their attention. "Navi, lights please." The AI computer dimmed the lights. "Navi, display our current position." A holographic image of the planet appeared in the middle of the room with a red dot labeled 'Nayru's Love – WY', and a white dot blinked in orbit with the label 'USS Hylia'. "Ok, the ship will stay in orbit while we go down to business. Navi will set up a comlink with the dropship and we will keep in communication at all times."

"Will we land inside the compound?" asked Kafei.

"No," replied Capt. Goro. "We will land in a landing pad about two miles away from the compound, here," he said while he touched the hologram and a dot of light appeared next to the compound. "We will then take the rover to the settlement."

"The APC isn't big enough for all fifteen of us," pointed out Jiro. "We will be very cramped inside."

"I will be staying in the dropship along with two of you," said Fi. "I will be monitoring all of your recordings and communications, keeping in touch with the HQ via Navi."

"So two of us will be missing all the fun, huh?" argued Pierre.

"So that will be one driver, one navigator and ten soldiers, the exact amount of seats available on the APC," said Capt. Goro. "Any other objections?" Nobody argued so he kept on. "I want the twins with the smart guns and Sgt. Goro with the demolitions kit. Link, you will choose two of your companions and form an advance squad."

"I'll choose Malon and Mikau," replied Link. His two friends nodded at him.

"Good," agreed Capt. Goro. "Sgt. Woods will stay in the APC along with Castle to monitor your vitals and assist with the computers. Aryll and Pierre, you're staying with the lady in the dropship."

Aryll made a gesture to complain, but Link gave her a hard look and she fell silent again. The captain then ordered Navi to turn on the lights again and the hologram faded. He motioned them to follow him and they all filed behind him into the hangar. Aryll opened her eyes in surprise when she saw the huge drop ship in front of her.

"Listen up!" called the captain again. They formed a circle around him. "This is a latest model UD-5Z Dropship Transport manufactured first time for this mission. Castle and Mido have already been trained to fly this so they'll be driving. For land operations," he led them to a large tank-like vehicle, "we received this Armored Personnel Carrier, ATV-X26, directly from the assembly plant; also, we have this baby," he led them to the other side of the hangar and Link opened his eyes wide, for he saw the most amazing transport he had ever seen. "This little bastard is the EP-0N4, a heavy duty hover bike, equipped with two rapid fire cannons on each side and a grenade launcher. It can only hold one round of grenade so if we ever use it we must be very careful about it."

"You can close your mouth, Link," said Aryll, nudging him in the ribs. "You're drooling on the floor." Link chuckled.

"We will drop in one hour," said the captain, "so everybody finish gearing up and let's move!"

Link and the rest of his fellow soldiers broke lines and started to get everything ready for drop down. He kept thinking about the mission and felt like this was going to be one hell of an operation. He approached Malon and Mikau and assisted them with loading the equipment and ammo into the APC while they conversed about the mission and their expectations when it all ended.

Several light years away, a large scout ship left orbit of an unknown planet and set course to LV-271.


	5. DEPLOYMENT

**_January 20th, 2232 1110 hrs_**

 ** _USS Hylia, orbiting LV-271_**

"Everyone, move your asses!" yelled the captain as the marines started to board the dropship. The APC was already secured in the cargo bay as well as the EP-0N4 and the soldiers hurriedly strapped themselves to their seats. "The weather is cold and turbulent so we're going in for a bumpy ride!"

"Everyone secure, captain," said Mido, strapping himself to his own seat in the cocpit.

"We're in position for dropdown," announced Shad, looking at his navigations panel.

"Communications link established with the Hylia," said Fi from her own terminal.

"Then let's rock and roll, ladies!" shouted Darunia. "Let's take this motherfucker down!"

The deployment arm inside the hangar of the Hylia grabbed hold of the dropship and lifted it over the launch doors on the floor. After the hangar was depressurized, the doors slid open and the arm brought the dropship down, locking into position.

"We're ready to deploy," said Mido.

"Release clamps," said Fi.

"Releasing clamps," said Shad, pushing a button on his console.

The arm released the dropship and Link felt his stomach sinking with the familiar jolt before the engines fired up and the dropship moved forward, down into the atmosphere. Aryll, sitting two seats away from Link, pressed her lips and closed her eyes as she felt her breakfast working its way back. Colin was sitting next to her and called her attention; she stared at him feeling extremely sick.

"Hey, you ok?" he asked. Aryll shook her head and closed her eyes again. "First drop down?" he asked again; she nodded. "It's ok. It's also my first," he told her, trying to calm her and held her hand. She squeezed it and smiled, still with her eyes shut.

The dropship entered the atmosphere and started shaking intensely. Aryll couldn't hold it any longer and puked loudly. Some of the others laughed and a few others made disgusting sounds. Jiro, however, took it as a cue and let it out as well.

"We just hit some turbulence," said Shad. "We've got winds blowing at over 40 mph and temperature ranging 45ºF."

It was already daytime at the compound's location and the visibility was practically null due to the rain outside. Malon's knuckles where white due to her tight grip on the handles that were holding her to her seat, Kafei was starting to feel slightly dizzy and Aryll screamed in terror when Mido was forced to do maneuver the dropship in a sharp turn, in order to avoid crashing it with the top of a mountain barely visible through the heavy rain.

"Didn't see that coming," said Shad.

"Switching visual to infrared," said Mido, pressing a button on his controls. The screen went red and they were now able to see the terrain outside.

"Four minutes to reach the landing pad," announced Fi.

"We're out of the turbulence," said Mido, as the ship stopped shaking. "Engaging planetary flight controls, now." There was another jolt as the sub-space propulsion system went offline and the ship's regular flight engines fired up.

"Ok ladies," barked Darunia. "Out of your chairs, ride's over. Smith and Carpenter, clean your mess up!"

Everyone released the clamps that held them in place and unbuckled from their seats. Grabbing their gear and climbing into the APC. Mido switched the landing controls to auto-pilot and grabbed his gear, heading into the APC as well. Fi took over Shad's terminal and he headed for his position on the APC. Darunia closed the APC as the dropship touched down. Aryll and Pierre went for the release controls of the door of the dropship's hangar and hit the switches. The door slid open and the ramp lowered itself to allow the APC to get out. Shad, who was driving the APC, pressed the gas and the vehicle shot forward into the rough terrain outside.

"Checking vitals, ok," said Saria, looking at her screens. "Video feed operational. Let's take a look at the readings." She looked at another monitor and nodded. "Oxygen and Nitrogen levels stable with slightly higher than usual, yet still safe, levels of Carbon Dioxide in the air; seems to be that the APP is still operational. Pressure is equivalent to 1.8 atmospheres, so it's tolerable. Temperature is 53ºF"

"We're nearing the compound," said Shad.

 _"APC, this is dropship; deploy at 100 feet from the compound,"_ said Fi's voice over the speaker. _"If there is a lockdown we don't want to give the wrong impression."_

Shad looked at Darunia, who nodded, and then pressed a button on the comlink. "Roger that, dropship, we'll be deploying as suggested."

"Ok, you all heard the lady," said Darunia, "get ready; we're going for a walk. Jiro and Ichiro, get your smart guns, you're going up front. Link, get your team ready for you're going in first!"

Link nodded as Mikau and Malon approached him. Shad parked the APC and Darunia slid the door open. Outside it was pouring rain and it was so cold that it was a shock at first for Link, Mikau, Malon and the twins, who were the first to jump out of the vehicle. Link motioned Malon and Mikau to follow him and they looked at the compound ahead. The outer walls seemed to be corroded and no lights seemed to be on. Link pressed the comlink on his ear and addressed Darunia.

"Captain, this is Link. I think nobody's home."

 _"We're going in right behind you,"_ replied Darunia's voice.

Link, Mikau and Malon heard Jiro and Ichiro getting close behind them, followed closely by the rest of the soldiers. Link motioned Mikau and Malon to spread and they walked toward the main door of the compound with their assault rifles ready. They reached the gate and noticed that it was slightly open, something that really bothered them. Darunia arrived shortly after with the rest of the team.

"What's going on here?" he asked.

"The gate is open, captain," explained Link. "Power seems to be down, so we must get to the main generator so we can have some light."

 _"Captain,"_ said Shad over the comlink.

"What is it, Castle?" replied Darunia.

 _"If you link one of your navigation pads to one of the terminals I may be able to update the map and database. That way you'll have a better approach of what is the situation."_

"Good idea. Dotour, come here!" called Darunia. Kafei came running toward him. "Give me your pad." Kafei complied and Darunia plugged it to the terminal by the door. The pad's screen then started to blink as a binary matrix started to flow through it. When the process was completed, Darunia removed the pad and looked at the updated map. "Good job, Castle."

"We should move into the compound," said Mido. "Let's try to get inside before we freeze to death out here."

"Good call, let's move!" shouted Darunia, and Link led his team first into the compound.

* * *

"Something's not right," muttered Fi.

"What's wrong?" asked Aryll, looking over her shoulder.

"The readings on the data that Castle collected are erratic. I can't seem to be able to pinpoint the location of Ms. Zelda or any of the colonists."

"What could that mean?" asked Pierre, sitting next to Fi.

"It means that either they're all dead or the tracking devices that we put on the colonists are not working."

"Maybe the tracker isn't properly calibrated," said Pierre.

"The frequencies that we use are fixed and standardized by the WY Corp. so that we don't have to calibrate our trackers all the time, so that's out of question."

"Should we inform the others?" asked Aryll.

"No," said Fi thoughtful. "Let me review the information provided by the compound's computer and then try to find an answer to solve this mystery."

"The others could be in danger, you know?" said Pierre, raising an eyebrow.

"I said no!" said Fi with a loud voice. "That's an order," she added.

Pierre and Aryll looked at each other in silence and went back to the cargo bay.

* * *

Link pointed his lantern at another terminal while Mikau plugged his data pad to it and Shad hacked into the security system. The pad beeped and the door unlocked with a loud clank.

"I thought the compound had no power," said Malon.

 _"Security systems work with an auxiliary power generator, so if an emergency lockdown has to take place there will be no outbreaks due to power shortages,"_ explained Shad over the comlink.

Link pulled the door open and Mikau and Malon entered first, flashing on their lanterns. Link followed them and the twins went right behind them, followed closely by Darunia and the rest of the soldiers.

"All clear ahead!" announced Link.

"Let's move in!" said Darunia.

Kafei was at the rear along with Colin, pointing their rifles in every direction illuminating with their built-in lanterns. Something on the wall called Colin's attention and he approached it slowly. A dark stain on the wall trailed down into an open vent near the ground. He stood up and raised his voice.

"Er, captain!" he shouted. "I think I found something!"

Darunia came back with Mido and Link, looking in the direction that Colin was pointing. Mido approached the wall and touched the stain.

"Seems to be blood," he said. "It's surely dried blood."

Darunia reached for his comlink and paged Saria and Fi. "You ladies looking at this?" he asked.

 _"Affirmative,"_ replied Fi. _"I agree with Lt. Woods, it seems to be a blood splatter."_

 _"Judging by the shape of the stain and the trail into the vent,"_ intervened Saria, _"I'd say that whoever left it tried hard to fight for his or her life."_

"Looks like the stuff we saw during the briefing were actually real and things got very nasty around here," said Darunia.

"Do you recon there are any survivors?" asked Kafei, who had approached them.

"We can't go and find the bloke who left this trail," said Darunia. "We must get to the control center so we can power up the generator."

Link nodded and returned to the front with Mikau and Malon as the rest of the group followed them behind.

* * *

The team had been walking through the dark tunnels of the compound in silence, barely stopping to check on some strange findings and then resuming their search. About two hours after breaking into the compound, they reached the door to the command center. Darunia noticed that the door was welded shut from the outside.

"'Tha fuck does this mean?" he asked. "Darmani, come here and open this door for us?"

Darmani came forward and applied a small amount of C4 and set a small detonator on it. Everyone stepped away several feet into the corridor and the plaster detonated with a loud bang, blasting the welding; Darunia walked up to it again and opened the door, a foul stench coming out from within. Inside there were several computer terminals, some shattered and others simply were powered out. Kafei sat by one of the terminals and tried to operate it but it didn't respond.

"We need to find the master switch," said Mido.

 _"Lieutenant,"_ said Shad through the comlink. _"There must be an electric panel at the back of the room."_

Mido went toward a small metal box right were Shad had pointed him and pried the lock open; there was a single red lever switch inside. He lifted the switch to the 'ON' position and a shower of sparks erupted from one of the broken terminals as the rest started to come back to life. Mido approached one of the consoles and typed in some commands; Kafei inserted his data pad on a slot and Shad immediately gained access to the main computer.

 _"It seems to be that they tried to erase some of the data,"_ explained Shad. _"Most files have been corrupted and rendered useless, yet others are ciphered and I will need some time to crack them."_

"Take your time, Castle," said Darunia. "I want to know why this room was sealed…."

"HOLY SHIT!" screamed Malon, stepping out of a room labeled 'Science' atop the door. "I think I know why it was sealed." She motioned them to enter the room.

"Holy shit…" repeated Darunia, as he entered the room behind Malon.

The chamber was filled with corpses, about seven of them in total, all of them with their ribcages burst open from the inside. Inside of a small containment tank filled with a strange liquid, there was floating a snake-like creature, apparently dead. It was skin colored, had gray sharp teeth and no eyes. A small pair of appendixes which may have been vestiges to arms could be seen stuck to its body.

"What the hell happened here…?" muttered Link, entering the room along with Mido and Mikau.

"Saria, Fi, can you see this?" asked Mido.

 _"Actually I can,"_ replied Saria.

 _"Captain, I need all of the intel we can get from the terminals,"_ said Fi. _"I need to run the information through Navi's matrix so we can find out if there are any references as to what we're dealing with."_

 _"Castle is already on it,"_ replied Saria. _"Captain, I need to get there so I can examine the bodies and get a first hand approach."_

"I'll send Link and Mikau to get you," said Darunia. He then gestured at Link and Mikau and they nodded before leaving the room.

* * *

Aryll and Pierre were sitting on a large rock outside the dropship. As the day progressed and the storm started to recede, the temperature had started to steadily increase. Aryll looked in the direction of the compound and sighed.

"It's unbelievable," she said. "This is my first deployment and I'm stuck here doing nothing."

"What's wrong with Fi anyways?" asked Pierre.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," said Pierre in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, "she's all stiff and serious all the time. She doesn't seem to be hungry for I didn't see her during breakfast until she arrived for the briefing and everything about her is classified."

"Well, of course it's classified," replied Aryll, rolling her eyes. "She's a representative of the WY Corp. and I'm sure she has her personal quarters, for I didn't even see her during showers; her cryo-tube was in the same chamber as ours, though."

"I don't know…" replied Pierre with a shrug, throwing a stone. "Maybe I'm just bored. This is also my first deployment, you know?"

"Let's go back inside and see if Ms. Stiff has some updates," said Aryll, winking her eye at him and jumping off the rock.

They walked into the dropship just in time to see Fi, a terminal cable usually used for plugging a modem to the navigational computer, ultimately plugged directly into her arm.

"What the hell?" said Aryll.

Fi removed the cable and looked at the two privates who were staring at her awestruck. She smiled sadly, being it her first emotional response since they first met her, and then sighed deeply.

"It all has an explanation, you know?" she said.

"Well," said Pierre looking at Aryll and then back at Fi, "we're not really busy are we?"


	6. CONTACT

**_January 20th, 2232 1450 hrs_**

 ** _UD-5Z Dropship Transport, landing pad 2, LV-271_**

"So you're saying that you're a robot," said Pierre.

"I'm a synthetic," said Fi. "I was assigned to this mission by the board of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to aid in any possible way, where simple human strength or intellect didn't suffice."

"I told you there was something about her," said Pierre, smiling at Aryll.

"But, why do you keep trying to control every aspect of the mission?" asked Aryll. "Aren't rob… I mean, synthetics, supposed to be compliant to orders?"

"I was programmed by the board to act as human as possible while there was no suspicion about my real identity, and also programmed to lead this operation as far as the interests of the WY Corporation go. I haven't been trying to control the military aspects, in case you haven't noticed."

"Well, you're aware that we need to report this to the captain, are you?" said Pierre, standing up.

"I'm quite aware of the implications and I will not interfere with your chain of command," replied Fi, sounding as an actual robot for the first time. "Yet I will continue leading the scientific and operative part of the mission as far as my orders go." She stood up and walked back toward the terminal, plugging the cable back into her arm.

"Should I actually tell the captain?" asked Pierre to Aryll.

"I don't think he'll believe you," said Aryll. "Let's just wait for him to find out on his own."

Pierre nodded in silent agreement and he and Aryll walked back outside.

* * *

 ** _ATV-X26 APC, Nayru's Love WY Compound, LV-271_**

Saria gathered her equipment and flung her rucksack onto her back; she grabbed her assault rifle and jumped out of the APC as soon as she saw Link and Mikau approaching.

"I need one of you to carry my other case," said Saria as soon as they reached her.

"I'll get it," offered Mikau, and he climbed into the APC and came out with a metal case. "This is heavy." He added.

"Then don't drop it," said Saria.

"We must go back to the command center," said Link. "I hope you haven't had lunch, because the stench is powerful enough to make you throw it up."

They went back inside the compound, as Shad drove away once more and then returned to his terminal. He kept monitoring the vitals of every one of them and looking at their video feeds. About an hour later, he noticed that Colin's feed didn't match with the rest of them, so he grabbed the mic and called up Darunia.

"Er, captain, this is Castle; I'm looking at Ordona's video feed and I don't know where he's gotten into. I'm not receiving any audio from him and the image is very blurry so I'm guessing he's out of my radio range."

 _"Got that, I'll try to contact him and tell him to get his ass back here,"_ replied Darunia.

* * *

 ** _Nayru's Love WY Corp. Compound_**

"Has anybody seen Ordona?" asked Darunia around; everybody denied it. "Damn it!" he reached for his radio and pressed the button. "Colin, where the hell are you?!" he barked into it, but he only heard static. "Ordona, get your ass back to the Command Center immediately!" More static. "Where is that dammned kid?!"

"We must find him," said Malon.

"Alright people, gather 'round!" called Darunia. "We have to find the kid before he gets lost or else. Lt. Woods, take Dotour with you; Darmani, you take Lon; I will be going with Ichiro. We will spread and rendezvous back here in one hour, with or without him. Jiro, you keep guard and wait for Link and Zora to return with the doctor. Everybody, understood?" All of them nodded and headed for the door, exiting the Command Center.

* * *

Colin pushed aside the crate blocking his way and pointed his assault rifle forward, its attached flashlight illuminating the way ahead; he saw something lying on the ground not so far away. He walked closer to it and saw a dead girl, maybe only a teenager, lying there with her eyes wide open in a blank stare; due to the cold, she had barely decayed at all so it was impossible for him to determine how long had she been dead. Colin knelt by her and set his rifle aside, lifted the girl's stiff body and flipped it over, noticing the large hole in the back of her head; he cursed out loud and stood up again.

"What the hell happened here…?" he whispered.

Slowly, he picked up his rifle and pointed at the wall to his left, where the metal plates seemed to be corroded and melted in several places. He walked up to the wall and touched the irregular edges of one of the melted areas and nearly dropped his rifle when he heard a quick rustling sound behind him. Pointing in that direction, he aimed with his light and heard the rustling again, as if some animal were scurrying away from the beam.

"Anybody there?" he asked. There was no response.

He walked further into the aisle and reached a balcony which hand-rail had been shattered; he leaned over to see down below and saw a set of stairs that went down to the lower levels, all five top flights crumbled to scraps of metal. He heard the scurrying sound again behind him and turned around, aiming with his lantern.

"Who's there?!" he yelled. "Come where I can see you?"

He aimed with his flashlight into the aisle and heard the scurrying sound once more, coming from above. Before he could react, one of the roof plates fell on the ground and all Colin saw was a spider-like creature jumping at him before his sight went dark and he passed out.

* * *

 ** _ATV-X26 APC, Nayru's Love WY Compound, LV-271_**

"Holy shit!" yelled Shad through the comlink. "Captain, Ordona's vitals just went wildly erratic, like in frenzy!"

 _"Don't lose sight of his monitor,"_ replied Darunia.

"I'm trying to pinpoint his location by using his vitals' signal and triangulate them with yours," replied Shad.

 _"I think we heard some rapid gunfire echoing somewhere south-east from our current position,"_ said Mido. _"Dotour and I are heading in that direction right now."_

 _"Go on Woods; Castle, let me know if you manage to locate the boy,"_ said Darunia.

"I will, cap." replied Shad.

Shad looked again at Colin's vitals, which had slowly started to regularize. He plugged his data pad to the monitor and started typing in some commands, trying to get his coordinates.

* * *

 ** _Nayru's Love WY Corp. Compound_**

Link knocked on the door and Jiro opened it with caution; noticing Link, he pulled it full open and let the three of them in, locking the door behind them afterwards.

"Thanks Jiro," said Link. "We heard through the comlink that Colin is missing."

"That's right," said Jiro. "The captain ordered an expedition to find him."

"I would like to see the specimen and the corpses," said Saria. "I need to send Fi the data so she can upload it to Navi's database and send it back to the HQ."

Link led Saria into the science section of the Command Center and Saria put on a white robe and a pair of sterile gloves and placed a mask over her mouth and nose. Link stood by her and she gave him another pair of gloves and a mask as well. She leaned over one of the corpses, a man, and checked the hole on its chest.

"Strange," she muttered to Link, "it looks as if the ribcage was torn from the inside out."

"What does it mean?" asked Link.

"It means that it is as if something came out of the body, look, nothing is missing."

Link closed his eyes as Saria held his wrist and inserted his hand inside of the corpse's chest, making him feel the lungs and heart of the body.

"Still, I don't understand," said Link.

"The organs are there, but it's as if they were chewed upon or torn," explained Saria. "This man was hosting something that fed on him before bursting out of his chest!"

Link removed the gloves and looked at the corpse intrigued. Saria wiped her hands on her robe and looked at the glass cylinder containing the serpent like creature; she approached it and examined the monitor by the container's base.

"That thing is dead, right?" asked Link. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure," said Saria, "I need to look at the data on the memory banks of the lab." She took a few more seconds to examine the monitor before looking at Link again. "And it's alive. Cryogenically frozen in liquid nitrogen."

Link looked at the creature floating inside the container; it looked like some sort of embryo of sorts. Saria walked around the room examining the other corpses and looking for any kind of notes that could help her find more information, while Link tried to imagine the horrors that the colony had gone through before they lost contact.

* * *

 ** _January 20th, 2232 1748 hrs_**

 ** _UD-5Z Dropship Transport, landing pad 2, LV-271_**

The sun was already setting down and Fi found Pierre and Aryll practicing hand to hand combat outside and approached them; noticing her, they made a pause and walked toward her as well.

"We need to get to the compound," said Fi.

"What's wrong?" asked Aryll.

"Everything is wrong," replied Fi. "I managed to establish a connection with the compound's computer and got some more videos that had been uploaded into the database; however, as soon as I got them the compound's computer detected the hack and initiated a lockdown, kicking me out of the system. The videos were all ciphered, but I uploaded them to Navi and she decrypted them for me. Our people are in grave danger."

"What was on the videos, Fi?" asked Pierre.

"Come and see," she replied.

Aryll and Pierre followed her inside and Fi showed them the images on her screen; the two soldiers looked at each other in horror and Pierre grabbed his radio.

"Corporal Castle, come in, this is Pierre," he shouted.

 _"Castle here, come in Pierre,"_ replied Shad.

"Corporal, we need immediate pick up from dropship and transport to the compound," said Pierre. "Situation has gone critical and we have important intel that we need to share with the captain!"

 _"Can't you just patch it through the computer?"_ asked Shad.

"The compound detected the hack," explained Fi. "I can't reestablish the connection."

 _"Alright,"_ replied Shad, _"I'm on my way."_

Pierre and Aryll downloaded the videos on Aryll's data pad, suited up and exited the dropship along with Fi, just in time to see a group of about five large black humanoid creatures, eye-less with large elongated heads and four appendixes sticking out of their backs, crawling menacing toward them. Aryll and Pierre grabbed their rifles and started shooting toward the creatures.

"Fi, run back inside and lock the door!" yelled Pierre, as one of the creatures fell dead to a burst from his rifle.

Fi entered the dropship and raised the ramp, closing the door of the dropship behind. Aryll shot another burst and the head of one of the aliens exploded with a shower of yellow blood. They heard the roar of an engine and Pierre turned in time to see the APC coming at full speed, but his distraction was taken as an advantage by one of the aliens, who missed Aryll's fire and jumped at Pierre.

"Pierre!" screamed Aryll, disposing of the remaining two screeching aliens and running toward Pierre, who was trying to pry off the alien on top of him.

"Get off you bastard!" he shouted, as the alien, growling, rapidly opened and closed its mouth, revealing a set of inner jaws inside. "Aryll, run!" he shouted as the APC stopped a few feet away and Shad jumped out with a pistol in hand.

"ARYLL, COME ON!" shouted Shad, aiming at the last alien.

"GET – OFF!" shouted Pierre, placing a hand on the alien's throat and squeezing.

The alien opened its mouth once more and Pierre saw the inner jaw also spreading open. Last thing he saw was the smaller set of teeth springing forward and breaking through his helmet, sinking into his forehead.

"NO!" cried Aryll in anguish as Shad started to shoot at the alien, who simply dodged the bullets and screeched again, before leaping forward toward Aryll. The girl grabbed hold of her assault rifle and shot another burst at her attacker, who got the bullets on the head and fell dead on the floor; a few drops of yellow blood sprinkled Aryll's arm.

Shad reached her as she started to scream in pain, for the drops of blood were now burning through her armband and reaching her skin. Shad ripped the sizzling armband off and carried her into the APC before closing the door, de reached for her arm and examined it.

"First degree burn," he said. "You'll be fine."

"We have to get Pierre!" cried Aryll.

"He's dead, I'm sorry," said Shad, strapping her to her seat, moving to the cockpit and stepping on the gas. The comlink blinked.

 _"I saw everything,"_ said Fi's voice. _"Is Aryll ok?"_

"She'll be fine," replied Shad. "I'm escorting her to the compound to be treated by the doctor."

 _"Keep me posted; I'm taking off and switching to another landing pad because there are more of those creatures showing up. Apparently they're coming out of a hole on the ground not far away."_

Shad saw a blast and heard the explosion behind the APC, as he looked at the monitor showing the feed from the rear camera and saw the dropship rising in the air and firing a couple of missiles into the surface. He looked again at Aryll and noticed she had passed out, so he grabbed his radio and pressed the button.

"APC to ground team, APC to ground team, please respond!" he shouted.

 _"APC this is ground team,"_ replied Darunia over the speaker. The APC jostled as it drove over a rock at full speed and Shad grabbed the radio again.

"Ground team, we have made contact with some hostiles!" shouted Shad, trying to keep the APC steady. "I'm heading back to the compound with Private Smith; she needs urgent medical assistance."

 _"Roger that,"_ replied Darunia. _"Carpenter and I will meet you at the entrance of the outpost. Link and Zora, please meet us there as well. Everybody else, return to the Command Center now, with or without Ordona."_

 _"Understood,"_ said Link's voice. He sounded agitated.

 _"We found him, sir,"_ replied Mido. _"He seems to be unconscious and doesn't respond. We're already carrying him back to the Command Center."_

"Captain," said Shad, doubtful.

 _"What is it, corporal?"_ asked Darunia.

"DuLac is dead, sir…" replied Shad. There was a long silence over the radio before Darunia spoke again.

 _"What about Fi?"_ he asked.

"She's safe and sound," replied Shad. "She took off with the dropship and headed to another landing pad."

 _"I want a full report as soon as we're in the Command Center,"_ said Darunia.

"Understood, Castle over," replied Shad as he put away the radio. He could see the compound ahead as he got closer to the main gate and his heart was racing as he thought back and saw the monsters over and over again in his mind. _"What the hell have we gotten into?"_ he thought.

* * *

 ** _Nayru's Love WY Corp. Compound_**

Colin woke up when Mido started to slap his face. He got up raising a hand to his head and rubbing his sore throat with the other. Blinking a few times, the blurriness of this sight faded and he recognized Mido and Kafei kneeling next to him. They were already back in the Command Center and he was lying on a stretcher in the science room; Saria had taken a sample of blood from his arm and was analyzing it.

"Thank goodness," said Kafei. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, right…" replied Colin sarcastically. "What the hell happened?"

"You tell us, you big adventurer," replied Mido in a patronizing way. "Why did you venture out of the Command Center without authorization?"

"I… sorry LT," replied Colin, standing up and nearly losing his balance. "I can't really remember what happened."

"The captain will be back soon," said Kafei. "Something happened at the landing pad; Aryll seems to be injured and DuLac is dead."

Colin opened his eyes wide and the door was suddenly burst open, Darmani and Malon came in and hurriedly closed the door behind them.

"Goodness, you're fine," said Malon, taking Colin's hand in hers.

"What happened?" asked Darmani.

"Guess we'll find out when everyone else arrives," said Mido.

Everybody nodded and looked back at Colin, who was starting to feel dizzy again.

* * *

Shad slid the door of the APC open and jumped out of it while carrying Aryll in his arms. Ichiro and Mikau were guarding the perimeter as Link took Aryll in his arms from Shad. Mikau escorted the two of them back to the compound.

"She was carrying this," said Shad, giving Darunia Aryll's data pad. "Sir, you won't believe what we went through."

"You go back to the APC and get a secure position so we can call you in case we need e-vac," said Darunia.

Shad nodded and he returned to the vehicle, as Darunia and the other two soldiers went back into the compound behind Link. A few feet ahead of them, Link was running toward the Command Center with Aryll, still unconscious, limp in his arms.

"Come on sis," he muttered. "Hold on, you can do this." His words were accompanied by the sound of his running footsteps on the metallic floor.


	7. XENOMORPHS

Link ran inside the command center and hurriedly placed Aryll on a stretcher. Saria approached her and examined her arm closely. Malon, Darmani, Mido, Kafei and Colin quickly approached them. Link wasn't sure, but he thought he could hear some weapons fire outside.

"Is she alright?" asked Colin; Malon placed a hand on his shoulder.

"How did this happen?" asked Saria.

 _"Blood splatter from one of the aliens,"_ replied Shad over the comlink. _"Saria, I'm looking at her readings and she seems to be in some sort of shock."_

"On the video that Fi showed us," remembered Link, "one of the scientists got his hand melted by the blood of the spider they were examining."

"It's as if it were some sort of highly concentrated acid," said Saria. "That's a good defense." She opened her medkit and started applying an ointment on her arm; then she wrapped it with a bandage.

Darunia barged in, followed by Mikau and Ichiro. They locked the door behind them and approached Saria, who was finishing with Aryll's bandage.

"Doctor?" asked Darunia.

"I just applied some medication on the burns," replied Saria. "It wasn't that bad, but I'm guessing she had a tough experience."

"Is it true?" asked Mido. "We heard that DuLac… is he…?"

Darunia nodded and held up Aryll's data pad; he walked up to a terminal and plugged it in. The screen flickered alive and a video appeared, depicting a pale man with white hair on a long lab robe. He finished getting the camera ready and then he walked up to a stretcher behind him; a man was lying on it, a bullet hole on his forehead.

 _"Ok, commencing video journal entry 22; October 31st, 2231. My name is Dr. Ghirahim, and this is my friend, patient zero."_ Dr. Ghirahim lifted the man's hand and waved grotesquely smiling at the camera. _"Nearly a week ago, this guy was sent into the tunnels and was found with one of those spiders stuck to his face. Unfortunately, instead of looking for assistance, he shot himself in the head; quite the radical type, the fella'. Miss Weyland asked me to dispose of the body, but what if we could harvest the thing? Think, if we could tame the creature to become our ally."_ Dr. Ghirahim raised a scalpel and proceeded to cut the man's chest open. _"He shot himself less than one hour ago, so let's see if it's still alive."_ Clotted blood splattered his robes when he used the forceps to open the man's chest. He then grabbed a pair of pincers and inserted them inside the man's chest cavity. A soft purring sound and then a screech were heard. _"Ah, there it is…"_ he pulled and a snake-like, eyeless, creature popped out of the chest, screeching like a new born baby that cries right after exiting the womb.

"What the hell is that shit?" asked Darunia.

"That's what is on the container!" said Saria, pointing toward the science room.

 _"I give you the Xenomorph XX121 embryo,"_ said Dr. Ghirahim with a smile. _"Much alive and ready to go on stasis for later examination."_ He approached a container with liquid nitrogen and dropped the creature inside; it immediately froze stiff.

Dr. Ghirahim approached the camera and the image went out; immediately, another video appeared. Dr. Ghirahim was now in a dark room, shots could be heard outside and sounds of people running and screaming echoed behind the door on his back.

 _"It has been two days since my last recording and hell has broken lose. There's too many of them and we have sent distress calls to Hyrule, but they will never arrive on time."_ He raised the camera over him and pointed through a window. Outside, people were being torn to pieces by the most horrible creatures: humanoid in appearance, yet with long, eye-less, rigged heads. They seemed to have some form of exoskeleton and their claws seemed capable of ripping a human into pieces. One of them grabbed a woman by the neck and impaled her with its long articulated tail, which ended in a sort of spike. _"We won't survive this…"_ said Dr. Ghirahim, before turning off the camera.

Darunia looked at the others and then spoke out loud. "One of those bastards killed one of our men today! We make sure they don't get any chances to kill again!"

The soldiers slammed their fists on the tables and walls in approval. Aryll moaned and slowly sat up. Link stepped forward and helped her to her feet.

"Link!" she screamed and hugged her brother.

"Aryll, thank goodness you're ok!" he replied. Aryll cried Pierre's name in his chest.

"It wasn't your fault," said Malon.

"Ok Private, get yourself together, we have to keep moving," said Darmani to Aryll. "The barracks are just a couple hours away from here. If we can lock ourselves in there, we should be able to secure the armory and get some sleep for the night."

"I want to stay here," said Saria. "I need to look at the data and run an analysis."

"As you wish," replied Darunia. "Woods and Dotour, you're staying with the doctor." Mido and Kafei nodded. "The rest of you, move your asses!"

They exited the command center and trotted behind Darunia and Ichiro, followed by Link and Malon who were side by side with Darmani, while Mikau, Aryll and Colin had stayed near the end. Both Darunia and Mikau were holding motion trackers.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"It hurts," said Aryll, "but I will be fine." She smiled at him. "How are you? Are you feeling any better?"

"Can't complain," he replied with a shrug. "I'm not really sure what happened, but I'm alive so I guess I'm ok."

"Pierre was a good soldier," said Aryll, "I guess he just…" she was interrupted by Darunia's shout ahead of them.

"HOSTILES!" he bellowed.

Everyone readied their rifles while Jiro and Ichiro's smart guns found their targets with ease. Four xenomorphs had fallen, while a bunch more came out of the vents and broke through the ceiling panels. Mikau's motion tracker beeped and Colin heard a screech behind them and he turned around in time to see a pack of xenomorphs closing in.

"Behind us!" he shouted. Aryll and Mikau turned around too and began firing with him.

 _"Captain, come in!"_ shouted Shad over the comlink. _"Captain, you have to get out of there! There's a large group of creatures heading your way."_

"Tell me something I don't know, Castle!" shouted Darunia.

The fumes of the burning metal, being dissolved by the aliens' acid blood, invaded their noses as the xenomorphs closed in. Colin shot a xenomorph that was about to grab Aryll and it fell dead on the floor.

"We must clear the path!" shouted Link.

"I'm on it!" yelled Darmani, grabbing a grenade from his waist and tossing it into the aisle ahead.

The bang nearly blinded them, as bolts of electricity sparkled from the grenade and the aliens fell on the floor screeching in pain. One of the xenomorphs that avoided the explosion grabbed hold of Darmani's arm.

"Gerroff me!" he shouted, searching for his hand gun. The alien screeched and its tail pierced him through the abdomen and exited near the base of his neck.

"MAN DOWN!" yelled Link.

"DARMANI!" shouted Darunia, and he aimed his rifle at the aliens' head.

The alien tossed Darmani aside as a burst of bullets went right through its head. Darunia kept firing while he approached his agonizing brother. Link and Malon approached him while Ichiro reloaded his smart gun. Jiro had gone further ahead, trying to clear the path while Aryll, Colin and Mikau were backing toward them, keeping the aliens behind at bay.

 _"Captain, I'm losing Darmani!"_ shouted Shad over the comlink.

"Come on, soldier," muttered Darunia, trying to help Darmani to his feet, but he simply gurgled, blood coming out of his mouth, before life abandoned his eyes.

"Captain, he's dead!" shouted Link. A scream in front of them told them that Jiro was in trouble.

Malon and Mikau ran forward to assist the twin, but he was soon overrun by xenomorphs who started to pierce his body with their tails, inner jaws and claws.

 _"Jiro is down!"_ shouted Shad. _"Captain, get the hell out of there!"_

Ichiro screamed in anguish and started shooting with his own smart gun, blasting the xenomorphs to bits but showering Jiro's body with acid blood. Ichiro swore over and over as his smart gun's automated target tracking system found bull's eyes all around the aisle. Link, Malon and Darunia assisted him while Aryll, Colin and Mikau finished with the rear. Soon, the aisle was clear again, and the floor was full of melted patches and alien corpses.

 _"Captain, there is another wave closing in,"_ said Shad.

"Roger that," said Darunia. "Let's go!" He gave a last glance at his brother, removed the demolition's kit from his bag and ran forward with the rest of them.

* * *

The group had been walking for nearly an hour when they reached the entrance to the barracks. Each room had two beds, one of each side, and a small desk at the end of the room. Some of the rooms were messy, ruined or even full of blood. At the end of the aisle there was a small dining room, full of litter and broken stuff all around the place. Darunia assigned them in pairs before he set down a guard schedule.

"Ok, Link and Mikau will be bunking together; Malon and Aryll, Colin and Ichiro. I will take the first shift. Mikau will take next in two hours followed by Ichiro." He spoke in an acid tone of voice. Everyone nodded and headed into their respective rooms.

Aryll kept tossing and turning in her bed. The pain in his arm was returning and her throat felt dry, so she got up and headed to the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Malon, slowly sitting up.

"Getting something to drink," replied Aryll.

"Here, take this," said Malon, handing her a handgun. "Just in case."

Aryll grabbed the gun and exited the room. Tucking the gun in her pants, she headed toward the mess hall and saw a Colin sitting by himself at the table.

"Can't sleep?" she asked, approaching him and sitting by his side.

"Ichiro snores," replied Colin with a shrug, making her chuckle. "Besides, I keep getting this horrible nightmare where I'm suffocating and I wake up with a strong pain on my chest."

"Yeah," she said, "I'm sure we'll all be getting those nightmares after we leave this place."

"Yeah," said Colin, rubbing his chest with one hand.

"Hey, thanks for saving my ass back there before," said Aryll, punching him in the shoulder with her good arm.

"No problem," said Colin. "How's your arm?"

"In pain," said Aryll, "but I'll live."

Colin smiled and she rested her head on his shoulder. Colin held her close and she looked at him smiling. He smiled back and soon Aryll found her lips locked with his in a soft kiss, closing her eyes and suddenly forgetting her thirst and pain.

* * *

"Aryll? Malon?" asked Link, knocking on their door.

"Come in, Link," said Malon, and he entered the room. She was sitting on her bed, a data pad in her hands.

"Where's Aryll?" he asked.

"Getting something to drink," replied Malon. "It sounded more like an excuse though, I think she wanted to be alone."

"You let her go alone?!" asked Link.

"I gave her a gun, and she knows how to take care of herself. She's not a child, Link."

Link noticed that she had a sad expression on her face, and her eyes seemed to be swollen, as if she had been crying.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Not really," said Malon. "It's just…" She looked away.

"Hey…" he said as he sat down next to her. "What's wrong?"

"I requested to be on this mission," she said. "Do you know why?"

"Spirit of adventure?" teased Link with a smile.

"No…" she replied without smiling. "My father was one of the guards that reported the fight on that day when the miner disappeared. I came to find him."

"Why didn't you tell me?" asked Link.

"Sorry… I just don't want Captain Goro to know…"

"I won't tell…" replied Link, holding a hand to her face. Malon held his hand and closed her eyes, as he slowly planted a kiss on her lips. Soon, they let the intensity of their kissing increase as they let the blankets cover them.

Colin and Aryll had sneaked into another room and had spent the night together, and Aryll woke up in the morning wrapped in Colin's arms. She stood up, got dressed and, lying back down next to him, she planted a kiss on Colin lips. He opened his eyes, smiled and suddenly started a coughing fit. She stood up quickly as he covered his mouth with his arm while he rubbed his chest with one hand. He started to convulse and she tried to pin him down to the bed, but he was shaking uncontrollably.

"Colin!" she started to scream. "Help! Some…!" she stopped shouting when Colin's chest exploded and a serpent-like creature, like the one on the command center, burst out of her chest with a screech.

"NOOO!" she cried, grabbed the hand gun from the nightstand and aimed at the creature that was now slithering toward the door. A single shot sufficed to kill it, its acid blood starting to burn down the floor. She dropped the gun and fell on the ground, tears coming down her cheeks.

The shot and her screams alerted everyone else, and soon Mikau, Darunia and Ichiro barged into the room, followed closely by Link and Malon. They found Colin dead on hi bed, the alien embryo on the floor in the middle of a acid-burnt hole and Aryll sitting against the opposite bed, her expression blank with her cheeks, drenched in Colin's blood, starring at the corpse.

"What the fuck happened here?" asked Darunia.

"Colin's dead…" muttered Mikau.

 _"Captain,"_ said Shad's voice over the comlink. _"Captain, Ordona's vitals went insane a few minutes ago and I just lost him. What's going on there?"_

"Ordona is dead," said Darunia. "One of those things was inside of him."

None of them was able to say another word. Shad had also fallen silent and Aryll seemed to be away from the room at the moment. Ichiro entered the room and covered Colin with his blanket, while the rest of them observed in silence, their hearts suddenly filling up with fear.

* * *

The scout ship reached LV-271 undetected by Navi's sensors. Its entire hull had been rendered invisible by a sophisticated cloaking device and it allowed the ship to enter orbit without anyone finding out. As soon as it was in position, a small pod was launched into the planet, falling no more than five miles away from the complex and leaving a small crater upon impact. Immediately, a hatch opened and a strong Yautja hunter emerged from it.

For long, they had tracked down this species to become their prey, yet it had been an underdeveloped species that had found it first. He had to restore honor to his clan and hunt them all down, before they could reach the queen.


	8. UNEXPECTED VISITOR

**_January 21st, 2232 0854 hrs_**

 ** _UD-5Z Dropship Transport, landing pad 5, LV-271_**

Fi saw the cloud of dust a few miles ahead, and she noticed the readings on the sensors signaling the impact of some form of meteorite. She aimed the sensors in that direction and they registered a strong source of energy. S he headed for the radio and pressed the comlink.

"Shad, this is Fi," she called.

 _"This is Castle, come in Fi,"_

"Shad, I'm reading an energy source about five miles from my position. I'm taking off and heading that way to investigate."

 _"Roger that, we'll keep in touch."_

Fi grabbed the controls of the dropship and it rose into the air.

* * *

 ** _Nayru's Love WY Corp. Compound_**

"Damn it!" yelled Darunia, slamming his fist on the dining room table. The others were sitting around it, already geared up, Aryll still covered in Colin's blood and her sight still lost and absent. "I'm not losing any more men!"

 _"How the hell did that thing get inside Colin?"_ asked Mido over the comlink. They had already informed them about what had happened.

"Beats me," said Darunia.

 _"Maybe he was attacked by one of those facehuggers,"_ suggested Saria.

"Face what?" asked Link.

 _"It's just the name I found for them in some notes here,"_ she explained. _"The spider creatures are called 'facehuggers', the embryos are 'chestbursters'."_

"And we need to know that because…?" asked Darunia sarcastically.

 _"Maybe one of those facehuggers attacked him when he was lost,"_ she replied, ignoring the tone. _"Mido, you did find him unconscious, right?"_

"It's a possibility," said Mikau. "We must then secure the barracks and the armory so we can replenish our ammo and have a place to rendezvous when we need to."

"Saria, Mido and Kafei aren't safe at the command center anymore," said Malon.

"The problem is that the passage from the barracks into the armory is destroyed," said Darunia. "I found out about that when I was on guard last night."

"We could move through the vents," suggested Mikau. Everyone looked at him.

"Are you crazy?!" asked Malon. "Those things use the vents!"

"Do you have any other suggestions then?" asked Aryll, surprising them all. Her voice was cold and sharp as it has never been before and her face had an expression of pure irony. "If you have no suggestions then shut the fuck up!"

"ARYLL!" shouted Link angrily.

"Don't Aryll-me, Link! You're not father!" yelled Aryll, standing up with tears coming to her eyes. "ONE OF THOSE CREATURES FUCKING KILLED COLIN!"

"SHUT UP, PRIVATE!" shouted Link. "THAT'S AN ORDER!"

Aryll scowled at him and sat back, crossing her arms in front of her chest. The rest of them were looking at Link in shock, even Darunia, for they had never seen or heard Link impose his rank over his sister before.

"Now, we have to get organized," said Link. "Captain, I suggest that we all go into the armory and gather some ammo; then, we can continue our search."

"I agree," said Darunia. "Woods, Dotour, come in."

 _"Copy, Captain,"_ replied Mido.

"Can you secure the command center?"

 _"No problem, Captain,"_ said Mido.

"Well then," said Darunia, looking at Mikau, "you lead us."

Mikau nodded and exited the mess hall, while the others followed him closely.

* * *

The Yautja looked up as he saw the lights approaching and the sound of a ship approaching. He engaged his cloaking device and knelt next to his capsule, taking out his weapons and gear. He placed his plasma cannon on his shoulder and looked straight at the transport coming.

* * *

 ** _UD-5Z Dropship Transport, LV-271_**

Fi stopped right over the crater. There was still a lot of smoke, so she turned on the infrared screen and her eyes went wide. In the middle of the crater, there seemed to be some sort of metallic pod and, standing next to it, there was a tall humanoid creature with a large head. She immediately grabbed the radio, but a burst of light crossed the space between the creature and the dropship, hitting it on the starboard side with a large explosion. The dropship started to spin uncontrollably, as Fi grabbed the controls and tried to stabilize it. She reached for the radio, but Shad's voice came through before she could grab it.

 _"FI, COME IN! WHAT WAS THAT! I SAW THE EXPLOSION!_

"Shad! I'm hit! There is some sort of creature here!"

The radio then sparked and fire started to come out of it, as Fi saw the ground approaching fast, got off the seat and headed into the hole on one side of the ship, and ran toward it.

* * *

 ** _ATV-X26 APC, Nayru's Love WY Compound, LV-271_**

Shad started the engine of the APC and headed toward the falling ship. He then saw as it crashed into the ground with a large explosion, wreckage flying all over the place. He reached his comlink and pressed the button quickly:

"GROUND TEAM, THIS IS SHAD! COME IN! FI'S DOWN! I REPEAT… FI'S DOWN!"

 _"What?!"_ yelled Darunia's voice. _"What the hell happened?"_

 _"What the hell?!"_ shouted Mido.

 _"Impossible!"_ said Link.

"She was exploring a meteorite that had just fallen and then there was this big blast and the dropship plunged down!" the APC jumped when driving over a large rock. "I'm heading into the wreckage to see if she survived!"

 _"Keep me posted!"_ said Darunia.

Shad stopped the APC a few feet away from the burning wreckage. He exited the APC, assault rifle in hand, and headed toward the fallen ship, now torn to shreds of metal and crumbling parts.

"Castle!" shouted a voice behind him.

Shad turned around and saw Fi limping toward him, holding her jacket closed with a hand. He ran in her direction and she held up the other hand to stop him.

"We must get out of here," she said, her voice sounded strange, as if she were speaking through a broken radio. "We have to leave, now…"

Shad nodded and they both entered the APC, closing the door behind them. Shad grabbed the radio and called Darunia.

"Captain, this is Castle, I found her."

 _"Is she fine?"_ asked Darunia.

Shad looked at Fi, and noticed that she had a trail of a strange white substance coming down her forehead. She wiped it off and nodded.

"She's fine, sir," said Shad, still looking at Fi. "She was limping when I saw her but she seems to be mostly unhurt."

 _"You two go to the command center,"_ said Darunia. _"Mido, go and escort them from the front door!"_

 _"On my way,"_ replied Mido's voice.

Shad stepped on the gas as he steered the APC toward the main entrance of the compound. Fi zipped up her jacket and tapped a few commands on the terminal next to her.

* * *

The Yautja stood looking at the APC with caution. He had managed to climb into the top of the outer wall, still camouflaged, and now he knew that he would have to be careful if he wanted to succeed on his mission. He tapped a few commands on his wristpad and jumped off the wall into the street below.

The alley was deserted. He switched his vision several times and detected a xenomorph trail along the path, heading toward the main entrance. Without giving it a second thought, he sprinted in that direction.

* * *

 ** _Nayru's Love WY Corp. Compound_**

Link was crawling through the vents right behind Malon. Mikau was in front of them all and he had his motion tracker held in front of him, full alert and ready to announce any hostiles approaching.

"I hope we're getting there soon," said Darunia. "The smell is horrible in here."

"Right here!" yelled Mikau, and he punched the grid beneath him, making it fall with a loud clatter on the floor. He slid through the hole and fell on his feet. Darunia jumped after Mikau and soon they were all in the middle of the armory.

The armory was a large room, rows of shelves full of different types of ammunition filled three quarters of the rooms and there were racks with guns and rifles along one of the walls. A large locker was revealed by Link to have several non-fire weapons inside, including some swords and a large retractable shield. He grabbed the latter and attached it to his right arm, pressed a button and the circular shield sprang open.

"Nice!" he said, and he retracted it again. He grabbed one of the swords and held it up. It felt lighter than his own, so he unstrapped his sword and replaced it with the new one. "These will work fine."

"You guess those will work against their acid?" asked Mikau, approaching him. He grabbed a few shurikens from a shelf inside the locker and pocketed them.

"I don't recognize the metal," said Link. "Maybe it's made of something found here, so who knows."

"Guess we will soon find out!" yelled Aryll, approaching with the beeping MT in her hand. Several signatures could be seen on the screen, approaching at a steady rate toward the armory.

* * *

Mido reached the main entrance as he heard his MT beeping. He turned around in time to see a pack of xenomorphs running toward him. Raising his rifle, he started to shoot accurate bursts at the creatures closing in, killing several in a few seconds. He heard the roar of the APC coming close, pulled out the empty magazine and replaced it with a new one. He raised the rifle ready to shoot again, but one of the creatures jumped at him, tossing him to the ground making him relinquish it. He rolled on the floor away from the alien, pulled out a hand gun and shot a single bullet at the creature's head.

The APC stopped by the entrance and Shad and Fi jumped out of it, holding out rifles and shooting at the xenomorphs along with Mido.

"Quite a welcome party!" joked Shad.

"Just shoot!" said Mido.

Fi started to walk toward the aliens and Shad tried to restrain her.

"Where the hell are you going?!" he shouted, shooting at another xenomorph.

"Trust me," replied Fi calmly.

"Stop playing games!" yelled Mido. "We have to…" he was cut by a sudden blast of energy that shot right past them and hit one of the aliens, blasting it to pieces.

"What the hell?!" yelled Shad.

They all heard a loud roar as a large creature jumped in between them and the aliens. It was wearing a metallic half chest plate and a pair of shoulder pads, one of which had a cannon-like weapon attached to it. Several props and weapons seemed to be attached to its body as well. It started shooting blasts of energy with the cannon at the aliens, killing them one by one; then, it turned around and went straight toward them, its face hidden behind a broad metal mask carved with symbols, a long, shiny, metal, dented wrist blade popping out of its right wrist band, as it walked straight toward Fi. Mido jumped in front of her and the creature grabbed him by the neck with its left hand, and raised the one with the blade.

"Drop him!" yelled Shad, shooting at the beast with his hand gun.

The bullet hit the creature's chest plate and it released Mido in surprise, turned around and growled while looking at Shad.

"Get the hell out!" yelled Shad.

The three of them ran as fast as they could, jumping over the dead aliens and pools of acid blood, heading toward the door of the main building. Shad looked back, but he couldn't see the creature anywhere. They entered the building and closed the door behind them.

"What the hell was that?!" asked Mido.

"That," said Fi, "is what destroyed the drop ship."

The other two just looked at them and, without further explanations, they ran toward the command center.

* * *

 _"Drop him!... Get the hell out!..."_ echoed Shad's voice over and over again inside the Yautja's mask.

The cloaked hunter was perched over a beam across the alien corpse littered passage, staring at the door through which the three human had just entered. He would deal with them again later, for right now, he had more important issues at hand. With a loud growl, he stood up and ran through the beam into the next building.


	9. UNDERGROUND

**_January 21st, 2232 1035 hrs_**

 ** _Nayru's Love WY Corp. Compound_**

"Everybody ready," said Darunia, as the signatures on Aryll's MT approached them.

Link aimed his Assault Riffle at the door of the armory, while Malon and Aryll aimed at the ceiling. Mikau readied his newly acquired shurikens and Darunia, along with Ichiro, aimed their respective weapons around in circles. The armory was a separate building from the barracks, being connected only by a passage, which had been destroyed, and the ventilation shaft through which they had crawled in. Currently, the MT revealed that the building was surrounded by at least six signals, though they were starting to gather into the front door, which led to the destroyed passage.

"Get ready to shoot on sight," commanded Darunia, as the rest of the soldiers pointed at the door. "Ready..." one of the signals approached the door from outside. "Ready..." The signal stood by the door a few seconds and then all of the signals started to retreat. "What the...?"

There was a loud explosion and all of the soldiers took cover as the door to the barracks was blasted away. With their ears buzzing by the explosion's blast, Darunia managed to see two small, metallinc cylinders being tossed inside of the armory before recognizing them.

"GRENADES!" he shouted a second too late.

There were two flashes and the entire group forced their eyes closed as they heard rushed footsteps getting into the armory, guns and rifles being cocked and voices shouting.

"GET OUT! NOW!" said a man's voice.

Darunia tried to lunge toward the man, but his eyes still were blinded by the flash grenade so he fell face forward onto the ground. Link felt how he was dragged out of the armory and, by the time his eyes properly functioned again, he saw all of his mates on their knees, hands behind their heads, being aimed at by a group of six soldiers, all of them wearing battered WY Colonial Marine Corps uniforms.

"Who are you?" asked the leader, a young soldier with a red bandana tied around his head.

"I'm Captain Darunia Goro," replied Darunia, looking up at the man. "We were sent by the WY Corporation to investigate what happened to the colony."

The man looked at the rest of the subdued soldiers and noticed the 'WY' logo on their uniforms. He made a gesture to his fellow soldiers and nodded; taking the hint, they lowered their weapons and helped Link and the others to their feet.

"Sorry about that," said the leader again, taking Darunia's hand and helping him stand up. "We've been expecting raiders after we lost any hope of being rescued." He took off his helmet and saluted Darunia solemnly. "My name is Taglo, Private 1st Class; currently the ranking officer of our small squad of surviving marines."

"This is all that is left of you?" asked Link with surprise.

"No," replied Taglo, looking at Link, "my sister Oreana and a few others stayed at the bunker taking care of the supplies."

"How many of you?" asked Malon.

"Including ourselves?" replied Taglo, turning to the redhead. "Ten people."

"Miss Weyland?" asked Darunia.

Taglo's face adopted a grim expression before he replied. "We haven't seen Miss Zelda in about a month."

All of the soldiers looked at each other in concern, unaware that they were being watched.

* * *

The Yautja hunter was kneeling, perched atop the roofstop of a nearby building, its stealth generator hiding him from curious eyes, while looking down at the soldiers gathered below. He zoomed in on them and noticed that they were probably part of the same group that he had encountered before. A soft purr escaped his throat as he stood up and cocked his head to one side. He hadn't expected to find these many of them, but he would have to find a way to dispose of them if he wanted to succeed in capturing the queen. He kept watching until they walked away in group, entering another nearby building, before jumping into another rooftop.

* * *

Mido, Shad and Fi entered the Command Center panting heavily, surprising Saria and Kafei as Mido and Shad bolted the door shut. Saria quickly approached them and helped Fi, who was still limping, toward the stretcher.

"Let me examine you," said Saria.

"I'm ok," replied Fi.

"I insist," replied Saria, as she unzipped Fi's jacket and opened it. Her eyes went wide as she looked up at Fi's face, who simply nodded at her.

"I told you, I'm ok..." replied Fi.

Fi had a short shard of metal, probably a chunk from the dropship, jabbed into one side of her belly; a white gooey substance was oozing out of the wound. Kafei, Mido and Shad approached her and their eyes went also wide with shock as they saw Fi's wound.

"What the hell?" asked Mido.

"You're a robot?" asked Kafei.

"I'm a synthetic," replied Fi. "I'm sorry I couldn't reveal it to you, but I was under orders from the corporation not to inform you about it."

"That's why you were so good with computers," said Shad.

Fi smiled and pulled the shard out from her belly with a squishing sound and asked Saria to patch it up.

"What happened out there?" asked Saria, as she sutured Fi's wound.

"We were ambushed by a swarm of xenos," replied Shad. "Then something else appeared."

"Apparently it was the same thing that brought down the dropship," added Mido.

"Yeah, it was some sort of creature, heavily armored and armed with a powerful energy based weapon," explained Shad.

"It quickly disposed of the xenos before he turned to me and tried to kill me," said Mido.

"Yeah, but I managed to scare it, though," finished Saria.

"We should inform the others," said Saria. "They are unaware of this second threat."

Mido nodded and pressed his comlink.

* * *

Taglo guided Darunia and the rest of them down several flights of stairs until they reached a large blast door. Tapping a code on the keypad next to it, Taglo gave a step back as the door opened revealing a large, fully lit room inside. A young girl, no older than 20 and also wearing a marine uniform, approached them; she had bright blue eyes and blonde hair, cut really short in a military fashion.

"Taglo, you're back," she said. "Who are these people?" she asked, looking at the new arrivals.

"They're part of the rescue team sent by the WY Corporation, said Taglo.

"About time you came," she said. "Things have been getting nasty and we're running out of resources." She stretched out a hand at Darunia. "Private Oreana."

"We must leave to the surface," said Darunia. "The xenomorphs we can easily dispose the more we are. As long as..." He stopped talking when he heard Mido's voice over the comlink.

 _"Captain, this is Woods, come in,"_ said Mido.

"I hear you Woods," replied Darunia. "Have you retrieved Fi and Castle?"

 _"Yes sir, they're fine... well... Fi was injured but she had a few surprises for us..."_

"What do you mean?"

 _"She's one of those synthetics!"_

"What?!"

 _"Yes sir, but that's not the point..."_ added Mido. _"We have another problem... we've made contact with what brought down the dropship. It's another hostile creature that apparently arrived a few hours ago. We engaged it and it's quite powerful and sneaky. Be on your guard."_

"Thanks for the advice," replied Darunia. "We found a group of surviving soldiers hiding in an underground bunker and we are heading toward the surface again. We'll see you at the Command Center."

 _"See you here, then. Woods out."_

Link and the others were looking at Darunia, for they had also been able to hear what Mido had said. Link was about to speak, but it was then that the MT started beeping again and several signals appeared on its screen, several screeches and growls echoing from the dephts of the tunnel leading to the bunker.

"XENOMORPHS!" yelled Taglo.

Link, Ichiro and Mikau were the first to exit, Ichiro raising his smart gun while Link and Mikau held up their assault rifles. The rest of the soldiers, both Darunia's and Taglo's, ran out into the corridor as well. As soon as the first group of aliens were within shooting range, bullets started flying as the creatures fell dead, yet the wave seemed endless.

"Is there another way out?" asked Darunia.

"There is a back door that leads to a service elevator at the end of the bunker!" replied Oreana.

"Let's go!" shouted Darunia.

The wave of aliens was getting closer to them as they stood up and walked backwards toward the end of the bunker. Some had started to crawl up the walls and now hung from the ceiling.

"Bring them down" yelled Taglo, shooting upward.

One of the aliens jumped on top of one of Taglo's fellow soldiers and impaled him with its tail rigth trough the heart, flinging the limp corpse against a wall before being shot down by Aryll.

"Go!" yelled Darunia, walking away as they reached the door to the service elevator. "I'll hold them off! Go!"

"Captain!" shouted Link.

Oreana keyed the code on the elevator's keypad and its doors opened. Two more of Taglo's soldiers fell dead and Darunia kept walking into the swarm of xenomorphs.

"DIE, MOTHERFUCKERS!" he shouted, as he drew the aliens' attention with his fire. Soon he was surrounded by a horde of xenomorphs.

"CAPTAIN!" shouted Link, but Aryll and Malon pulled him into the elevator and slid the door close just in time for an alien to run into it and slam its head against it before Oreana pressed the button and the elevator started to raise.

"Come on and get me!" yelled Darunia, just when he ran out of ammo. He dropped the rifle and grabbed two frag grenades from his pouch and pulled the rings with his teeth. "Se ya'll in hell!" One of the xenomorphs impaled him with its tail and another pierced his head with its inner jaw, making him drop the grenades which, after a couple seconds, detonated forming a two massive explosions which killed nearly every alien inside of the bunker and rattled the raising elevator.

"CAPTAIN!" yelled Link. Malon grabbed him by the elbow and Link turned to look at her, a look of shock on his face.

"Link..." said Aryll, approaching him. "I guess you're in command now..."


	10. SILENT STALKERS

**_January 21st, 2232 1415 hrs_**

 ** _Nayru's Love WY Corp. Compound_**

"Captain?" tried Mido once more on the comlink, but only received static. "Captain, can you hear me?" More static. "Corporal Link, can you hear me?" Still more static.

"Something's not right," said Shad.

"No way..." said Mido with sarcasm. "They must have run into trouble. We have to go and find them."

Meanwhile, Fi was fiddling with one of the terminals before smiling when she found the plug she needed and inserted it into her forearm.

"I think I can locate them if I manage to link myself to the main computer and bring up the schematics of the compound," she said.

"But how will we locate them if they are underground?" asked Kafei.

"Now that I'm directly patched into the computer, I can override the firewalls that prevented me from manually reactivating the main power generator and hence enabling the internal tracking sensors of the colony," she replied. "Also, each Colonial Marine has a tracking chip implanted. As long as they're alive, I can pinpoint their location and isolate them from any other signature, therefore revealing where they are."

"Can you also locate where are the xenomorphs and the creature that attacked us earlier?" asked Shad.

"As long as they are in movement, the sensors will be able to locate them; however, it is impossible to determine whether the signatures we find are from friends or foes."

"Wait," said Saria. "Every colonist gets a tracking chip implanted too before they are sent into a new settlement. Can you isolate the signals from those tracking chips in order to find the survivors?"

"I'll have to create a remote link with Navi on the Hylia so I can access the corporation's database and get the frequencies for the Nayru's Love colonists."

Mido thought for a moment in silence before speaking again. "If you manage to do that, please try to isolate Ms. Zelda's signal."

"Yes, I will," replied Fi nodding.

* * *

Another xenomorph was blasted into tiny bits as the Yautja shot a few rounds of plasma at the small group moving toward him through one of the compound's outer streets. One of the aliens pounded at him and he grabbed it by the tail, swung it in a wide arc and released him upward, blasting him out of the air with his plasma caster. Turning around, he saw two more xenomorphs running his way. He grabbed the two discs on his belt, pressed the button on them and five curved blades popped out around them. As soon as the aliens lunged at him, he tossed the shurikens at the creatures, slicing them in half before he saw them return to him, catching them with ease before placing them back on his belt. Looking around him, he made sure there were no more hostiles nearby, switching his vision modes a few times to verify there were no more trails of heat or other kinds of signatures. As soon as he was sure there was nothing more, he approached a nearby door and, using his long wrist blade, he sliced the door open and entered the compound, activating his cloaking device once more.

* * *

The elevator came to a stop and Ichiro exited first, followed closely by Link, Oreana, Malon and Mikau. They had arrived into what seemed to be a large landing pad inside of the compound, surrounded by tall buildings and a large gate all the way across the pad. After they checked that there were no hostiles nearby, the rest of the soldiers exited the elevator. The sun was shining above them, the ground was soaked and slippery because of the recent rain.

"Ok," said Link, turning to look at the rest of the soldiers. "There's twelve of us here, so we have to stick together if we want to survive. So we can work better, we'll split in two toons. Mikau will lead Toon Alpha, which will be conformed by Malon, Aryll, Ichiro and himself. Taglo, you will keep leading your remaining soldiers as you have been doing so far, you'll be Toon B. I want Toon A to stay on the lead, for they have the smart gun, while Toon B will cover the rear. Any questions?"

"Yeah, in which toon will 'you' be... sir?" asked mockingly one of Taglo's soldiers while grinning.

Link approached the soldier and looked at him sternly. "What's your name soldier?"

"Private Sheik, sir," replied the soldier.

"Well, private," replied Link calmly. "I will be my own toon, the one standing at the very front of the group, the one whose bullets will strike down the first xenomorph, the one willing to blow himself up with a grenade to save your ass... Is that a problem?"

Sheik's grin had faded and now everyone was looking at the two of them. Mikau and Taglo approached him and Link looked at them both before speaking up again.

"None of you is worth more than the other; none of you is better than the other; and none of you will be dead weight to the group!" Link spoke with a tone of command that nobody dared to contradict. "We protect each other and we fight for each other! Our mission is to rescue as many survivors as we can and get them the hell out of this rock, and if I see that any of you tries to run away from the mission or comes forth with selfish intentions," he made a pause to create some suspense before finishing, "I'll shoot you myself! Is that clear?"

"SIR, YES SIR!" chorused the rest of the soldiers.

"We must head first to the Command Center so we can retrieve our two senior officers and fellow soldiers safely. Be on your guard, for we know that the xenomorphs are not the only danger that await for us here." He looked at Taglo and Mikau, who nodded at him, and then turned around while adding. "Let's move!"

Taglo and Mikau started to gather their toons while Link, his heart beating fast, looked at the schematics of the compound on his data pad.

* * *

"I found them," said Fi calmly. "They are near the western gate of the compound on landing pad 19."

"Can we contact them?" asked Kafei.

"They're currently out of range," said Fi. "There's too much damage to the antennas and repeaters along the compound to be able comm them."

"Is the way clear?" asked Mido.

"There seems to be no apparent danger," replied Fi. "But I'd keep my guard raised."

"Ok," said Mido, grabbing his assault rifle. "Dotour, you come with me. Castle, you stay here with Fi and Saria. Keep the channels open and let us know if anything comes up."

"Fi will keep track of you so we can alert you of any immediate danger," said Saria.

"Thanks, let's go," replied Mido before he and Kafei exited the Command Center.

* * *

The Yautja aimed his plasma caster at a half-open door and blasted it out of the way, gaining access to another corridor. He switched his vision again and detected a trail of xenomorph going around the corner. Grabbing his retractable spear, he sprang it open and stalked the aisle until he reached the crossing and peeked around; the xenomorph trail kept going until it entered one of the vents. He walked up to the vent and crouched to examine it when he started hearing footsteps nearby. Engaging once more his cloaking device, he flashed his mask's eyes before starting to walk slowly toward the source of the sound.

* * *

"Fi, are we clear?" asked Mido on the comlink.

 _"There seemed to be some movement about four blocks away from you, but it's disappeared from the sensors,"_ replied Fi.

"I'd really appreciate if you could turn on the lights, ya' know?" said Mido.

 _"I've manually initiated the main power generator, yet it's capacity is still not loaded to its hundred percent. As soon as it runs at its maximum capacity I will be able to restart the illumination throughout the compound."_

"How far is it loaded?" asked Mido.

 _"Thirty five percent,"_ replied Fi.

"Shit..." muttered Mido under his breath.

Kafei had walked a few steps ahead when he slipped and fell on his side, slamming his temple against the floor. Sitting up with a groan, he placed his hand on the floor to push himself up and felt a cold, slimy substance under his palm.

"Ugh, what the hell his this?" he asked, lifting his hand to examine it.

"You ok?" asked Mido, approaching and kneeling by him.

"I slipped on this thing," he said, before he felt something cold dripping on his shoulder.

Mido saw as some sort of slime dripped down Kafei's arm before both of them looked up, noticing that they were right beneath an open vent. A screech was then heard and Mido was suddenly pierced through the shoulder by a long, black articulated tail, as the xenomorph hidden inside the vent pulled him in.

"LIEUTENANT!" he yelled, before he heard Mido screaming and some rapid gunfire and Mido's assault rifle fell from the vent, covered in slime and blood. "LIEUTENANT!" yelled Kafei again but there was no response. He quickly reached for his comlink and fumbled trying to press the button on it, but fear took over him as he realized that the antenna had broken when he had fallen. "Shit..." he muttered, as he raised his assault rifle and tried to find his way back.

* * *

 _"Shit..."_ echoed Kafei's distorted voice. _"Shit..."_

The Yautja retracted his readied plasma caster and turned his laser aim away from Kafei's back. He thought that it would be better if he could study him and that way learn how they behaved before engaging them in combat. Flashing his mask's eyes again, he followed the human slowly and in silence.

* * *

"I can't contact them, sorry," said Fi.

"YOU HAVE TO!" yelled Saria, tears in her eyes while she grabbed Fi by the neck of her jacket.

"Wow! Calm down Sergant!" said Shad, pulling Saria away from the unaffected synthetic. "Maybe their comlinks are broken."

"You were supposed to warn them of any imminent danger!" cried Saria.

"I could only warn them when the enemy was moving," said Fi. "However, this particular enemy seemed to be still, so I wasn't able to detect it."

"Are they alive?" asked Shad.

"Dotour's signature is still on the move," replied Fi. "Apparently he's trying to find his way back here. Lieutenant Woods' signature is moving in a different direction, though." She made a pause, a blank expression on her face, and then spoke again. "Remember that the tracking chip only functions as long as the person has active vital signs, so if I can locate them it means that they're alive."

"We have to find them," said Saria, grabbing Shad's assault rifle from the table.

"Wait!" replied Shad. "We have to wait until the others return." He then turned to Fi. "Have you been tracking the others?" he asked.

"I'm tracking them as they move, but there's something you should know," she replied.

"What is it?" asked Saria.

"Well, for one thing I can't locate Captain Darunia amongst them," replied Fi.

"What?!" said Shad. "The Captain's dead?!"

"It seems to be," said Fi. "However, there are new signatures added to the group. I can count up to twelve people."

Shad sighed in relief. "They must have joined with other surv..." he suddenly fell silent, for the MT on the desk had started to beep.


	11. AUTHOR NOTICE

Hello dear readers,

I'm taking this time to let you know that I'll be placing ALL of my FanFictions on a temporary hiatus for a little while. Reason? I'm currently working on my first original story, which is not published on this site.

The story is being written in both English and Spanish, though I'm speeding up the writing in spanish, only translating whenever I get to an author's block, and it will be an adult romantic story. If any of you is over 18 and wishes to read it, you can PM me so I can let you know how to find it. (Why PM? Cuz I'm using a pseudonym to publish it)

As soon as I finish with it, I'll be coming back here and continue with my FanFiction stories.

Thank you all for following!

Rick


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